Genealogical Note:

The Bailey-Deyo Family Papers contain a wide variety of materials related to the ancestors of Helen Deyo (née Guiles).

General Samuel Baily [sic] (1760-1822) was a Revolutionary War veteran and native of eastern Connecticut who emigrated to Saratoga County in the 1790s. A former mariner, Baily settled in the town of Greenfield and became a shopkeeper and tavernkeeper. He served in a number of local offices, including justice of the peace, commissioner of highways and trustee of the local school board, and was an officer of the 59th Regiment of the New York State Militia, eventually rising to the rank of brigadier general. (Note that although Samuel himself consistently spelled his last name as "Baily," the collection includes documents by other hands in which his name is spelled "Bailey," "Bayley" or "Baly.")

Baily's son, Samuel Bailey (1800-1890; unlike his father, the younger Samuel spelled his last name with an "e") spent his life in Greenfield, where he worked as a farmer and auctioneer and served as deputy sheriff. His daughter Marion Cook Bailey married John Burdett Easton; their daughter Harriet (Hattie) Easton married Frank I. Guiles.

Hattie Easton and Frank Guiles had two sons, Irving and Leland. In 1929, Irving Guiles married Emma Weirman, the daughter of Charles Weirman and Bertha Whipple of Saratoga County. Helen Jean Guiles, the daughter of Irving Guiles and Emma Weirman, was born in Greenfield in 1931 and married William Deyo in 1952.

Scope and Content Note:

These papers are largely organized according to the successive generations of the ancestors of Helen Guiles Deyo. The first series of papers, retrieved from the attic of the General Samuel Baily homestead in Greenfield, documents the personal and professional activities of Samuel Baily the elder and his son Samuel Bailey the younger, 1787-1891. The second series consists chiefly of the personal papers of the Weirman and Guiles families, which date from the late nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries. The Baily papers have been divided into two sub-series, personal papers and official records of the Town of Greenfield; the Weirman and Guiles family papers have been organized into separate sub-series for each generation of the respective families, with additional series for ephemera, photographs and bound and oversized materials.

Bailey Family Papers, 1787-1890

The personal papers of General Baily consist of correspondence, financial records, legal documents related to his many business interests. A small assortment of records, including correspondence, contracts and sailing charters, documents his activity as a sea captain in Rhode Island prior to his move; a wide variety of records documents his life in Saratoga County. An extensive collection of financial records, including accounts, bills of goods, promissory notes and receipts, documents his financial affairs and provides a window into the economic life of an early-nineteenth-century small town.

Baily was a founding member and deacon of the First Baptist Church of Greenfield, and his papers include records related to the church, including correspondence, meeting minutes and financial records. In addition, several folders of chronologically organized records, consisting primarily of correspondence and inspection returns, document Baily's service as an officer in the New York State Militia.

A smaller assortment of materials documents the activities of General Baily's son Samuel, who served as Deputy Sheriff and worked as an auctioneer.

Oversized documents (Box 15) related to Samuel Baily include land deeds and a collection of political handbills printed by the Saratoga County Federal-Republicans.

Town of Greenfield, Saratoga County, New York, Records, 1795-1849

These records were generated by General Samuel Baily and his son during their respective terms of service in a variety of local government offices. They consist primarily of documents related to the administration of justice and include an extensive collection of writs of summons and execution, as well as smaller collections of levies, subpoenas and judgments, generated during Samuel Baily the elder's service as justice of the peace and his son's service as deputy sheriff. Records in this subseries also document Samuel Baily the elder's service as commissioner of highways and trustee of the local public school.

Personal Papers of Harriet Easton Guiles, 1889-1909

A small selection of papers belonging to Harriet Guiles (née Easton), the great-granddaughter of General Samuel Baily and paternal grandmother of Helen Guiles Deyo, are notable primarily for containing material related to prominent Saratoga portrait painter Nelson Cook. They include Harriet Easton's childhood autograph book, which Cook has inscribed with a quotation from British poet William Cowper, and a letter to Hattie E. Bailey, the daughter of Samuel Bailey the younger and aunt of Harriet Easton, in which Cook discusses some technical aspects of palette composition.

Charles Weirman and Bertha Whipple, the maternal grandparents of Helen Guiles Deyo, are represented in this assortment of materials which includes childhood autograph books, wedding invitations, and funeral records.

The personal papers of Irving B. Guiles and Emma Weirman, the parents of Helen Guiles Deyo, include correspondence, wedding and anniversary records, and ephemera. The correspondence of Irving B. Guiles includes numerous letters from girlfriends prior to his marriage to Emma Weirman. This series also includes a pair of original sketches by cartoonist Hilda Terry inscribed to Emma Guiles and her daughter Helen Jean. (Terry, who was the creator of the long-running comic strip Teena and the first woman to be a member of the National Cartoonists Society, was a national official of the Campfire Girls, at whose summer camp Emma Guiles worked as a cook.)

Leland and Arthur Guiles – World War I Letters, 1917-1918

The letters sent to Mrs. Frank Guiles (Harriet Easton) by her son Leland Guiles and nephew Arthur Guiles document their World War I service as soldiers the American Expeditionary Force.

Personal and Genealogical Papers of Helen Guiles Deyo, ca. 1935-1990

Helen Guiles Deyo is represented in this collection primarily by the copious amount of notes, correspondence and research material which she assembled in the course of her genealogical research. The research material includes a large quantity of photocopied documents relating to the history of the Bailey family and its origins in eastern Connecticut and western Rhode Island; the correspondence is primarily with second cousins Russell Crayton and Marion Crayton Taylor, who shared Deyo's interest in family history and kept one another informed of their discoveries. Subject series of note include the Samuel Baily homestead in Greenfield and the painter Nelson Cook.

Miscellaneous Family Papers and Ephemera, 1867-ca. 1980

This subseries includes various articles of ephemera collected by the Weirman-Guiles family as well as documents related to members of the extended Weirman-Guiles family not represented in any of the main series.

Photographs, ca. 1890s-ca. 1970s

The collection includes a broad assortment of tintypes and photographs documenting several generations of the Whipple, Weirman and Guiles families. These include an early twentieth century Guiles family album, several snapshots of Bertha Whipple and her family, and high-school-age portrait photographs of Helen Jean Guiles and her sister Charlene.

This subseries consists of several folders of postcards collected as vacation souvenirs by Helen Guiles Deyo and her husband William over the course of their marriage.

Bound and Oversized Material, 1794-1987

The collection includes several nineteenth-century ledgers and daybooks which were reused as scrapbooks during the early twentieth century. These scrapbooks (likely the work of Bertha Whipple Weirman or Harriet Easton Guiles) contain newspaper clippings related to history, the arts and World War I. A box of oversized documents consists primarily of newspapers containing articles related to the Weirman-Guiles family.

Box and Folder List:

Box

Folder

Description

Bailey Family Papers, 1787-1890

1

1

Accounts – 1791-1822

1

2

Accounts – 1825-1835

1

3

Accounts – Undated

1

4

Account Books – 1787, 1793

1

5

Appointment of Samuel Baily as Guardian of Benjamin Wickhaus, 1817

1

6

Arithmetic notebook (handwritten), 18th Century

1

7

Arithmetic guide (handwritten), 18th Century

1

8

Bills of Goods – 1787-1822

1

9

Bills of Goods – 1827-1837

1

10

Bills of Goods – Undated

1

11

Bureau of Military Statistics survey form – filled out by Lewis Samuel Bailey, 1860s

1

12

Contracts – 1800-1827

1

13

Contracts of the form beginning "Know all men by these presents…" – 1784-1836

Articles of agreement (contract) between Samuel Baily and Stephen Hines (Hynes), relative to the construction of a dwelling house by Hines for Baily in Greenfield, Saratoga County, New York, August 10, 1797

2

7

License to Keep a Public Inn or Tavern granted to Samuel Baily, 1795 (includes annotation by Helen Guiles Deyo)

2

8

Lists of names [includes roster of members of First Baptist Church of Greenfield ?]

2

9

59th Regiment of the New York State Militia, Records – 1796-1805

2

10

59th Regiment of the New York State Militia, Records – 1811-1815

2

11

59th Regiment of the New York State Militia, Records – 1816-1818

2

12

59th Regiment of the New York State Militia, Records – 1819-1821

2

13

59th Regiment of the New York State Militia, Records – Undated

2

14

Notes on agriculture; poetry and hymns (transcribed)

2

15

Power of Attorney (on behalf of Samuel Baily and relatives) – 1791, 1811

Ledger, original owner unidentified [partially legible cover inscription may read "C.B. Brown"?] – Used as account ledger 1825-1830 and again 1846-1889; partially reused as scrapbook of newspaper clippings ca. 1915-1920, primarily on politics and World War I news [likely by Bertha Whipple Weirman or Harriet Easton Guiles.] Includes inserts.

13

2

Ledger, original owner unidentified – Used to record judgments, 1843-1872, and marriages performed, 1843-1888; used as sales ledger, 1894-1897.